Today’s New York Times has published another of its fantastic articles about cancer and coping with cancer. Today’s article, written by Jane Brody, discusses chemo brain. Until a short time ago, many doctors denied that it even existed, but today it is pretty much accepted as being real. One is said to suffer from chemo [...]
One of the first treatments used when diagnosed with advanced or recurrent prostate cancer is hormone therapy. Hormone therapy (androgen blockade) is a systematic treatment, or it treats the cancer through the entire body. Prostate cancer that is believed to be in the gland is treated with a localized, focused treatment of the actual gland [...]
Combined androgen blockade with bicalutamide for advanced prostate cancer: Long-term follow-up of a phase 3, double-blind, randomized study for survival Department of Urology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan has released some very significant survival data about a previously reported, double-blind, randomized, multicenter phase 3 trial. This trial compared combined androgen blockade [...]
I have written a fair amount over the life of this blog about the cognitive impairment that many of us experience when we are on an androgen blockade (ADT). I have share my experiences about getting lost on the NYC subway, forgetting where I was going and why I was going there. I also have [...]
The Department of Urology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, performed a retrospective study designed to evaluate the overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in men receiving primary androgen-deprivation therapy (PADT) or salvage medical ADT (SADT) for prostate cancer. The study included men who were diagnosed and treated with ADT between July [...]
A phase II trial was just completed at the University of Western Australia to investigate changes in bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis in men on intermittent androgen-suppression therapy (IAST) over a period of three years. This trial, conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Department of Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles [...]
A new paper published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and co-authored by researchers from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Management concluded that sexual behavior at work creates a problem in the work place, especially morale. The study looks at sexual behavior in [...]
The occasionally discussed, but not often used, alternative hormone therapy, transdermal estrogen might be ready to soon move on to a phase III trial. A poster presentation of a phase II trial showed that transdermal estrogen patches drove down testosterone and PSA levels to a similar extent as an LHRH analog. The poster presentation was [...]
I have always assumed that treating my prostate cancer with a hormone blockade increases my risk of having a cardiovascular problem that increases my chance of death. Taking any drug is always a trade off, one benefit against the potential harms. It is a perfect risk-reward situation. However, there is some new research that makes [...]
How does the song go- "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.” That is a feeling that I have experienced and that I believe we all will experience. Nevertheless, we have to continue to plow through our treatments, pills, endless doctors appointments and, of course the co-pays. I do find that it [...]
